Thursday, November 26, 2009

AMELIA

site | trailerThumbs sideways for pretty much what you'd expect—a well-acted if clunkily edited educational film.

Not a lot to say about this. Entertaining, but not outstanding. A standard, by the book, broad strokes biopic of a historical figure/celebrity. Well-acted, well-shot, alternately clunkily and oversimply edited time-jumping storytelling. The most standout thing about it was the credit title "Commodification Montage Dancers."

Altho her character's accent take a little getting used to, Hilary Swank does that thing she does and disappears into her role. Maybe it's a case of my seeing too many films, but unfortunately, that role is almost a cliche. This will sound silly, but she does everything you'd expect Amelia Earhart to do, y'know? The one unexpected wrinkle is in her love life, but even that gets ironed out in the end.

This is dumb, and has nothing to do w the movie, but only while watching the film, and seeing/hearing people address Swank's Amelia, did I first connect her last name with her destiny. Earhart, spoken: air heart. Is it just me? Does everyone see that as a "gimme?"

*SPOILER* It IS educational. I didn't know much about Miss Earhart except the headlines, and bits of her story were interesting eye-openers. Expressions of her individualist and feminist streak were pretty cool, especially in her unofficial wedding vows, a letter she wrote to her fiance on the night before their wedding. Also didn't know that there was anyone with her when she disappeared. Never hear about HIM, eh? Nice to see Chris Eccleston on the big screen, tho.